Kazuyama was wrapped in a green glow as the three Snake Princesses—Tagorihime, Ichikishimahime, and Tagitsuhime—extended their right index fingers forward.
Red, blue, and green spectral lights converged before him.
In the next instant, a fierce blast of fire erupted from his mouth.
As the crimson flames passed through the three colored lights, they shifted into an eerie hue.
Snakes are venomous by nature, and each of the three Snake Princesses had trained in a different form of Senjutsu, making their toxins distinct. Tagitsuhime's was paralyzing, Tagorihime's hallucinogenic, and Ichikishimahime's corrosive.
Kazuyama, after mastering Senjutsu, had developed his own snake affinity—fire poison.
Maybe it was because of his obsession with setting things ablaze, but his poison turned out to be the most vicious of them all.
The fire itself hadn't changed, but with the infusion of those toxins, its lethality skyrocketed.
The bees in front of him didn't even get the chance to react. They were instantly reduced to dust.
Not ash—dust. Ichikishimahime's corrosive poison dissolved their flesh, and Kazuyama's burning fire poison incinerated what was left. The result was a fine powder scattered on the wind.
The ghostly glow of the flames lit up the night, drawing the attention of every Iwagakure shinobi stationed along the Land of Grass border.
But the shock of the sight didn't last long. The ongoing explosions quickly snapped everyone back to reality.
Katsuyu's kamikaze squad was still charging ahead.
"What the hell is that fire?!"
"Lord Shibito Azuma! We need backup!"
Yabee watched helplessly as the flames plunged into the forest and merged with the explosions already roaring through it. The searing, unnatural heat made his heart pound.
As his poison bees were incinerated into nothing, fear overtook him.
The figure glowing with green light in the sky was too much for him to even look at. With no other choice, he directed his poison bee king deeper into the Land of Grass.
"You bastards! Damn Konoha shinobi!"
"Rōshi! Han!"
"Take down the one setting everything on fire!"
Yabee didn't need to issue orders—Shibito Azuma and Kakkō were already on the move, and behind them came a wave of Iwagakure's elite shinobi.
With explosions rocking the entire area, there was no way they hadn't noticed.
Two massive figures shot out from the ranks.
One moved at blistering speed, his body radiating steam—he was at the frontline in seconds.
The other radiated blistering heat, molten rock coating his entire form in red-hot magma.
The Five-Tails Jinchūriki Han and the Four-Tails Jinchūriki Rōshi—two of Iwagakure's most terrifying weapons—were charging straight for the border.
"Kazuyama, Kokuō and Son Gokū are here. You really wanna keep fighting?"
"Forget staying undercover—just the two of us can't take them."
Chōmei, seeing the two Tailed Beasts storming in, quickly warned his brother.
But Kazuyama didn't need the reminder. The moment he spotted the two Jinchūriki, he knew it was time to pull back.
"Katsuyu, how many clones haven't broken through yet?"
"More than half. The blast shockwaves slowed their advance."
Kazuyama frowned.
He'd known from the start that not every Katsuyu would make it, but after all this time, only half had gotten through?
No way. At this rate, the whole plan was about to collapse.
"Tch... guess I've got to step in myself."
He tossed a kunai embedded with a teleportation mark and vanished in a flash of Flying Thunder God.
He reappeared in front of Tsunade.
Without a word, he grabbed her. She flinched in surprise, and before she could say a thing, the scene around her had already shifted.
"Hey, you little bastard, what are you—"
Boom!
The explosion cut Tsunade off mid-sentence and made it painfully clear she'd been teleported straight into the battlefield.
"Tsunade, no time for talk. Start tossing these slugs over there."
"The enemy's already sent reinforcements. Whether we can wipe out those bees depends on us now."
Tsunade glanced at the continuing explosions in the distance and gave a firm nod.
"Katsuyu, gather around me."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade."
The slugs that hadn't yet made it into the forest immediately began pulling back.
With the blasts momentarily ceasing, the Iwagakure shinobi finally managed a breath of relief.
"Damn it! Counterattack!"
"Kill those Konoha bastards!"
"Charge! ...Wait—what is that?"
Just as the Iwa ninjas began rallying, cursing and preparing for payback, one of them suddenly shouted in confusion.
More heads turned skyward.
"Holy hell! Run for it!"
"Move! Take cover!"
It was a massive boulder.
The Iwa ninja could only groan in frustration. First explosions, and now giant rocks?
And this one was ridiculously big.
But what happened next was completely unexpected.
The instant it slammed into the ground, the boulder shattered. Countless shards and blue-and-white slugs burst out in all directions.
"Damn it! It's those damn bugs again!"
"Watc—"
He didn't even finish the warning before another explosion ripped through the area—this one even more devastating than the last.
That rock had landed right in the middle of their formation.
The blast swallowed everyone nearby in an instant.
And the rocks just kept coming. One after another, enormous chunks of stone were hurled toward Iwa's ranks.
And that still wasn't all.
A sudden gust of wind swept through the area, lifting the sluggish Katsuyus into the air and hurling them straight toward the Iwa camp like they had wings.
Kazuyama was unleashing Wind Release with full force. Fueled by Senjutsu chakra, each gust was more potent than normal, launching the Katsuyus en masse toward enemy lines.
"Looks like you've mastered Orochimaru's Wind Release to perfection."
"Tch. I'll take that as a compliment."
Tsunade and Kazuyama kept up their banter while working without pause.
But their opponents weren't going down that easily. From deep within the forest came a furious roar.
"Where the hell did these pests come from!"
"Get lost!"
A torrent of steam tore through the air, instantly dispersing the flames. As deadly as the explosions were, this steam was even more violent.
In the next moment, a massive figure barreled through the trees, crushing everything in its path—including slugs that hadn't yet detonated.
The Five-Tails, Kokuō, had entered the fight—and her presence was overwhelming.
Steam poured from her body as she charged, her five massive tails sweeping through the air, shattering incoming boulders mid-flight.
The surge of steam wiped out the remaining Katsuyus.
The tide of battle flipped in an instant.
"Shit. Looks like we're out of options."
"We're pulling back, Tsunade."
"Katsuyu, if you haven't exploded, fall back immediately—hey, hey, hey?!"
"Tsunade, where are you going?!"